Silvery Moonlight
by ghostwriter122
Summary: With the Captain gone in Vienna, Maria is left in charge of the children and she has so many surprises in store! READ AND REVIEW!
1. Default Chapter

**Silvery Moonlight**

DISLCAIMER:  I don't own anything but the soundtrack and the movie.

~*~

Maria walked along the lake.

It was night and the warmth of the dark air around her hugged her in its comfortable embrace.

The children were asleep and she had planned on following suit, but as she closed her new drapes for the night and packed away the play clothes she had just finished making, she saw the stars reflecting off the calm water and was overcome by the beauty of the scene.

It was much the hills outside the Abbey.  The beauty was beckoning for her to come and take her part.

She pulled the drapes shut lightly and walked down to the garden, moving quickly; not wanting anything to change in the time it took her to get there.

She gasped as she stepped onto the terrace.

She felt like singing, but she didn't have words to express the scene, so she hummed a familiar tune and walked along the water's edge, admiring nature.

~*~

Maria awoke the next morning and the sun was shining lightly through the thin drapes.  She smiled to herself before stretching and sitting up.  With the Captain in Vienna, she had nothing to fear, and she had a nice exciting day for the children planned.

"Nothing to fear, indeed," she thought as she dressed quickly.  "It's best that he's gone, he would never approve." And yet, there was a still certain guilt in her stomach.  She knew that what she was doing was right, after all, they were children, they deserved to be happy, but the Captain was their father.

"What he doesn't know can't hurt him," she decided, shaking away her doubts and picking up the play-clothes she had made as she left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.


	2. Default Chapter two

**Silvery Moonlight**

~*~

Voices coming from the next room awoke an exhausted Maria early the next morning.

She sighed as she pulled herself from the comforts of her bed into the slightly cold – as it always seems to feel in the morning, no matter how warm the temperature – room.  The sun was shining brightly through the now drape-less windows and she smiled as she remembered what she had in store for the day.

~*~

Breakfast was quite the affair that morning.  The children were unusually rambunctious – she guessed it was like this when the Captain was not there to oversee the goings-on of the meal – and it took her quite a few tries to be able to hush them into hearing her plans for the morning.

At first, their faces revealed their excitement; however, the delight was shadowed over when Freidrich said,

"Father would never let us do that," and the children all glanced uncomfortably at one another.

No, Maria thought, their father would not let do this.  But, wasn't that the basis of its appeal?  She turned it over in her mind for a second, playing with the idea of canceling the whole escapade altogether and spending the day lounging about the estate.  This thought only lasted a mere second, however and she soon grinned at the children, sheepishly.

"You're absolutely right," she stated finally, "however, your father left me in his charge and I think that taking a picnic lunch to the mountains is the perfect way to spend a beautiful summer day, so you'll have to trudge along.  I order you to." Brigitta was the first to smile, but she was soon followed by Gretl and slowly but surely all of the children were grinning happily.

"I've never had a picnic before," Gretl admitted.

"'Course you have, silly.  We went years ago. Remember?" Kurt prompted. But, of course, Gretl did not remember and to her, this picnic was as good as a first and just as exciting.  She was soon bubbling with comments and questions and requests and she was positively pestering the older children until Maria surprised them with the play clothes. 

Then they were struck speechless.

They were, naturally, all wearing their uniforms and the play clothes scared them somewhat.  The picnic, they knew, was a distinct disobeying of their father's rule and they felt the least they could do was keep their uniforms as a grasp onto the rules they were forced to follow so stringently.

However, Maria insisted and so, one by one, the children took an outfit from her and ascended the staircase to change.

This was going to be quite an adventure.


End file.
